What does "objects-first" mean?: An international study of teachers' perceptions of objects-first

  • Authors:

  • Jens Bennedsen;Carsten Schulte

  • Affiliations:

  • IT University West, Aarhus V, Denmark;Free University, Berlin, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Koli Calling '07 Proceedings of the Seventh Baltic Sea Conference on Computing Education Research - Volume 88
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

In this article we study how teachers of objects-first versions of CS1 courses all over the world understand the term 'objects-first'. By analysing the descriptions of the term objects-first from more than 200 teachers worldwide, we have found and described three categories: using objects, creating classes, and concepts. A second study of more than 40 teachers was undertaken to validate our suggested descriptions. Implications of the three categories are described. These were determined by analysing whether the three categories lead to different evaluations of typical CS1 topics. The differences are analysed in relation to three dimensions: the relevance of the topic, how difficult teachers think students find the topic and the level at which students are supposed to learn the topic. Overall, only small differences between the categories are found. The three categories characterize a little over 50% of the courses; the rest use a combination of the three categories.